Freedom
One misty, cold Sunday morning in the northwoods she came into my life as a visitor from a nearby resort. Her name was Lisa, a Vassar student, and she had recently met the first real Christians she had ever known. They told her about our camping program for university students, and so she had come. It was time for morning worship, and I invited her into the lodge for the service.
She took in the student participation with relaxed and casual interest. But as the speaker began to read she strained forward as if to drink in every phrase. He read, "But the fruit of the Spirit is
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
self-control."
He let each quality drop as a gem to be admired as he read. As quickly as the list was finished she turned to me with
Page 146
brimming eyes, gripped my arm, and said in a loud whisper, "That's what it is. That's what makes them so special!"
Looking at that cluster of fruit, she thought not of abstract ideas, but of two people. Those words described the Christians she had met. And the compelling quality of their lives made Lisa eager to know the source of such inner beauty. Small wonder she had said of them, "They are nice to know!"
The fruit of the Spirit never looked more winsome than during my talk with Lisa. Since then I have turned many times to Galatians 5, to read these verses in their context. The chapter begins: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." The subject is freedom. Christ has set us free — free to have this kind of fruit in our lives: Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.
That is freedom worth talking about. Not just a freedom to talk about, but a freedom to experience, to have worked out at the core of life. Not an abstract idea, but a reality which others can identify.
What is this freedom Christ offers? It is the freedom of acceptance with God. No one has to work his way to the divine; God comes Himself to take away our guilt and graciously call us to Himself. Upon our individual response to Him, we are released from slavery and made His dear children, given all the family privileges.
Why would anyone experiencing such freedom from bondage be warned against submitting again to a yoke of slavery? It does seem absurd. But so easily we take back the management of our own affairs. We stop believing; we stop obeying. Our humanness gets in the way and pulls our eyes from God's supply to our own resources. We begin filling our own needs.
Page 147
Somehow, we believe we have to be good enough to make it to God. We've accepted His standard now, which makes performance even harder. Bondage.
Falling away from freedom into bondage is one problem. The Bible mentions another. It talks about freedom which leads to license. We're forgiven, we're accepted. We're free, aren't we? Let's do our own thing. The Bible calls this "using your freedom to indulge the sinful nature" — freedom as a launching pad for selfishness. How quickly freedom can fall into the pit of selfishness, distorted and twisted, bearing no likeness to the freedom to which we've been called.
The freedom Christ has given us is the freedom to reach our highest potential. Paul wrote earlier in this Galatian letter of his longing "that Christ be formed in you!" or "until you take the shape of Christ" (NEB). That is our potential, and we are not passive participants in this likeness to Christ.
The battleground is within us. Freedom is ours; but slavery is also a choice. Paul says, "Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want" (Galatians 5:16-17). He is talking about a realistic inner conflict. Christians possess two natures. The sinful nature is what we have by natural birth;; the Spirit is the Holy Spirit who causes us to be "born again," to come alive spiritually. He is the One who indwells us. These two, the sinful nature and the Spirit, oppose each other in what has been called an "irreconcilable antagonism." Certainly as we learn to "walk by the Spirit" our old nature is increasingly subdued, but this comes by daily commitment, through daily right choices.
What is the choice I must make? I must decide who will direct my life — my sinful nature or the Holy Spirit. It is not
Page 148
self-effort that keeps us on track, but the Holy Spirit. It is yielding to Him. Without Him we end up with the works of the flesh instead of the fruit of the Spirit. Works versus fruit. The fruit comes from having our roots deep into the refreshment of God. He produces the fruit.
In contrast, the works of the flesh are obvious (Galatians 5:19-21): "Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like."
Contrasting the works and the fruit ought to sufficiently discipline our lives. Who would choose works instead of fruit? Yet there are some people whose lives are a constant round of ups and downs. Defeat and victory, depending on who is in control. The Bible says there is only one way to handle the problem. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires" (Galatians 5:24).
Crucified is no half measure. It is pitiless and painful. It is decisive action. We nail our hangups to the cross, our poor, base desires which get us in trouble, and we leave them there. John Stott amplifies the significance of this by pointing out that death by crucifixion is not sudden, but gradual. While our old desires may often rear their heads, they have been nailed to the cross and we are determined to keep them there until they die.
The great secret of the Christian life is the decisiveness of our intention. Some people never intend to obey the gospel by submitting to the Lord. They try to arrange life so they can admit to the truth of Christianity without giving up themselves. They come again and again for counsel, for forgiveness; they may seek out psychiatrists or medical doctors for woes of the mind and flesh caused by their inability to give up. They need to decide to obey God by letting the Spirit control their lives.
Page 149
You can think of a dozen illustrations from your own life, and so can I. Amy, for instance, had a problem with drugs. She started out "cool," just wanting a bit of a lift for her spirits, and ended up flat out and suicidal. She was invited to come to God for help and forgiveness. She struggled and kicked all the way and eventually went through the motion of giving her life to Christ. Her conversion seemed genuine, but as time went on she took out all her "works of the sinful nature" and handled them again to see if they were dead. They weren't. Her ups were less frequent than her downs. She was fitful, restless. Clearly she was not letting the Spirit direct her life. A confrontation was essential. Was she serious or not in her intent to give her life to Christ?
Only God knows when she really became His own child, but it was not until she abandoned herself to God that she began to develop the inner decisiveness to make choices that led to walking by the Spirit. Amy had never really given up her secret love for the weakness of her sinful nature. Drugs and sex still were an alive appeal that needed to be crucified. She could not crucify them by herself. When she gave herself completely, nothing held back, God captured her affection and gave her the help she needed.
The Spirit-controlled life is not fake role-playing. One person may have a well-developed personality and enough savvy to know how to live with others and thus be quite pleasant company. Another may grit his teeth and try to produce synthetic love and joy, in spite of poor digestion and many conflicts, in order to get along with others. Some may even enroll in charm courses hoping to become fascinating women. Others learn how to manage situations psychologically, taking apart the components of actions and conversations for analysis — and so managing life.
Page 150
But this is self-effort, not the work of the Spirit in a person. In daily situations we have two choices: to handle it on our own, or to let the Spirit direct us. As we choose the latter, He works out a cluster of fruit in our life. I mention a cluster because the Bible doesn't say fruits, it says fruit. It's all of one piece. I can't say, Lord, I'll have a lot of love and joy, but forget about the faithfulness and self-control. Or I like apples and pears, but forget about plums. It is not fruits, but fruit. Each is attached to the other. It's the total picture of godly character.
Each characteristic mentioned reflects the character of God Himself. Love, joy peace. He is the source of each, and it is His activity in our lives that produces genuine love, genuine joy, and genuine peace. Wouldn't you like to hang a sing on your door reading, "LOVE, JOY, PEACE LIVE HERE"? What a beautiful trio to have embodied in a person! We've already discussed God's kind of love and the meaning of joy in other chapters. But peace alone could fill a book. Peace with God. The peace of God. Peace: possession of adequate resources. Peace: the absence of conflict. Peace comes from what we know about God, not from what we know about ourselves. "Shalom" is a Hebrew greeting. Did this originate with God's activity in revealing Himself and His plan of redemption?
Every household should have the quality of shalom. It makes home a safe place. But it must come from your own heart as the tangible part of the fruit of the Spirit. Peace is not just an abstract ideal; it is a valid experience. Children are touched by peace, and so is everyone else. A boy once remarked about his mother, "She makes me quieter inside."
Patience is another translation for longsuffering. It means "steady under pressure." How patient God is with us! I remember a woman taking me to lunch one day and asking,
Page 151
"If Gerald doesn't change by the end of the year, don't you think it would be okay for me to go ahead and get a divorce?" No one had ever asked me that question before and it left me a bit speechless. But then God provided the answer in my mind, "I think you can be as hard on Gerald as God has been on you." Longsuffering. God knows what that is about. It is inherent to His nature. He gives mercy upon mercy.
How many times has a woman thrown herself across the bed and cried out, "God, I can't take it any more. It's too much!" And God has come with a fresh supply of patience to cope with a hyperkinetic child, a poor job situation, a physical weakness — or whatever your heartache is. Longsuffering or patience isn't always what we want, but it is what we need from God, from others, and for our own character. God says that His patience and forbearance is meant to lead men to repentance. Will not He use our longsuffering to that end as well? It is called longsuffering, not endless suffering.
And what can be said of kindness and goodness? When we see these in action we appreciate afresh what it means to be human and made in the image of God. Our need and our aspirations are bound into one.
Faithfulness deserves a whole chapter in a day when vows are easily broken and the whimsy of our hearts leads us to rationalize our inconstancy. Faithfulness reflects God's heart. All of His character is in perfect harmony. We do not have to wonder if today He will be the same as He was yesterday. Will He keep His promise today? Yes. God is faithful.
He wants His children to be like Him. That is why He gave so many instructions about paying a vow, about "swearing to your own hurt and changing not." Did you say you would go? Then go. Did you say you would do it? Then do it. Faithfulness means that you can count on a person's integrity.
Page 152
She will not change when she has given her word.
Faithfulness is so rare today that it may become the Spirit's most convincing characteristic in our lives. Look at the Ten Commandments and observe how many are related to faithfulness — faithfulness in relationships, faithfulness in concern, faithfulness to God.
Some time ago a woman very dear to me left her husband, assuring me that God had told her this was all right because it had been a mistake in the first place. She felt nothing for him at this time. No unsolvable problems marred their marriage. She just preferred life without him. She felt a certain way. I protested on the basis of the character of God. What could she find in him that would allow her to be so faithless? She would not talk about God's character or her responsibility. She talked about how she felt. The fruit of the spirit is faithfulness — based on a commitment, based on righteousness, based on the character of God. We cannot claim to walk in the Spirit and be unfaithful.
The Spirit will keep us faithful, and because His fruit is one piece, He will fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. Faithfulness will not mean barrenness! It will mean godliness.
Gentleness. In a brusque world, what a lovely gem. No arrogance, no guile in gentleness. The gentle person hears a voice outside herself, and sees a person through the eyes of the Creator. Gentleness forgets self because of concern for others.
Self-control. I listened to an angry woman who couldn't find her off-switch, and thus went on and on, raising her blood pressure and irritating everyone else's gastric juices. Any small, stupid thing would set her off. I wondered if she could be that angry over genuine injustice and evil!
Page 153
I talked to a young woman, newly married, who had trouble doing anything unpleasant because she had never in her life had to do what she didn't want to do. She couldn't discipline her life to have any order. She was always behind with mountains of work undone, agreed upon responsibilities that were not completed. Previously her sexual attractiveness had made the man in her life overlook things that her best girlfriends could have warned him about, but now he was no longer moved by her coquettish behavior. How do you make yourself do what you don't want to do? she asked. Do it with God's help. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
When things don't go right, when they go unexpectedly very wrong: self-control. It's bigger than biting your tongue, or learning to cool it. It is the Spirit's inner-working of peace inside you. Self-control is the opposite of circumstance-control.
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse put it this way: "Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Patience is love enduring. Kindness is love's touch. Goodness is love's character. Faithfulness is love's habit. Gentleness is love's self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins." And if we go on to say that God is love, we have tied the cord of God's character around this cluster of fruit.
As I read this list of the fruit of the Spirit, I long more and more to have this worked out in my daily life. It is the heart of being a Christian woman. The resources of God are available to live this kind of a life, but we are slow to take them. It's hard to keep within a budget. We overspend in almost every area of life except this one. If we believe, says Bishop Houghton, why do we live so far below our spiritual income?
Let me suggest two poor attitudes that cause spiritual paralysis and keep us from moving on with God. (1) We may
Page 154
have unrealistic expectations that defeat us before we even begin. Being human gives us an in-built tendency to blame others for their imperfections and the distress this causes us. We keep waiting for things to change, so we can begin to grow spiritually. Sometimes we try a self-improvement course because we blame ourselves for everything that has gone wrong, and we want to get ourselves in shape to begin to trust God.
The world isn't perfect, our family isn't perfect, our friends aren't perfect, we aren't perfect. None of this takes God by surprise. Why it should surprise sinners that they are imperfect is a mystery. But some women can't believe that God has done much until the situation becomes absolute perfection — which it hardly ever does on earth. For instance, a mother can keep peace from flowing through her home while she waits for everyone to shape up. I know of a woman who fussed because her husband stopped at the tavern every night on his way home from work. When he stopped doing that she fussed because he didn't come to the table at her first call for supper. She forgot all about thanking God that the tavern was no longer an issue.
Another woman I know prayed that God would help her daughter become a better student at school. When the daughter's attitude changed and she moved up to a C average, the mother kept pushing and praying that she would become an A student. Kathleen was not made to be an A student; she was a loving, kind C student. Her mother had unrealistic goals based on her view of how things ought to be rather than on how they actually were. No love, joy, or peace came through from this mother to the family because the fruit of the Spirit wasn't realized in her own life. She didn't recognize God's help when she saw it.
The Christian woman needs to learn to live in a real world,
Page 155
with real problems, with a real God who is capable of meeting our human needs for time and eternity. And she needs to set time against eternity to keep her values straight. In light of eternity much of what we count of supreme worth will be seen as trivia.
A Christian woman gives all she knows of herself to all she knows of God and continues to grow in the knowledge of both. She becomes a channel for the outflow of His character as she takes on "the shape of Christ." She cannot wait for life to change, but says "The life I now live, I live by faith."
(2) We may have an inadequate concept of freedom which makes us afraid to give ourselves completely to anyone, least of all to God. The key to giving ourselves to others is our personal abandonment to God. But we are afraid. And so we hold on tightly to ourselves, afraid to lose our life because we are bent on saving it.
Freedom involves living the way we were intended to live, according to our nature. For instance, a train is constructed to run on rails. It experiences freedom only when it accepts the limitations that its nature imposes on it. A train going along the track at full speed is a wonderful sight, but a train attempting to cross a plowed field is a disaster.
Just so with a pianist who accepts the discipline of the keyboard. Her greatest flights of freedom and self-expression are not in defiance of this discipline, but in submission to it.
Who best knows the nature of our freedom? I would sooner give God that wisdom than claim it for myself. Bishop Frank Houghton once commented that ever since Isaiah had seen the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, he had known it was absolutely safe to trust Him. Every woman needs that kind of confrontation with God. Only then can she fully abandon herself, and find that in losing her life she saves it. When she lets go and casts herself on the goodness of God,
Page 156
then she will know the meaning of freedom. C.S. Lewis has said, "Until you have given your self to Him you will not have a real self." She who loses her life shall find it!
A persuaded heart. That is what it means to have faith. And that faith releases "the refreshing energies of God" on our behalf. No position of power, no possessions of this world, no honors or achievements can compare with it. A persuaded heart is a woman's peace and power.
